Jump to content

Ish

Members
  • Posts

    5,047
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    363

Posts posted by Ish

  1. My knowledge of what a supernate is begins and ends with a hazy recollection of seeing the word in a science textbook twenty-plus years ago... 

    There’s many reasons I became a history major. Mostly, it was that the maths are a lot easier, but also not having to remember this sort of technical voodoo was a key factor.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  2. I have zero clue about the chemistry and was just trying to make a cheap joke. Your original sentence was completely grammatically correct (although I think you meant to say "supernate" and not "supermate"), the presence of the comma doesn't actually change the nature of my answer since the nature of the joke is that the respondent acts as if the questioner was using Boolean logic rather than seeking clarification as to which specific one of the two possibilities is the correct answer. 

    Basically, the respondent ignores the way humans actually communicate in order to make a Dad Joke.

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  3. 6 minutes ago, Munkie said:

    And really, in the fluff, how often do we read about deepstrikes mishapping? Usually it's reinforcements showing up Johnny on the spot.

    I’ve seen it referenced once or twice, but it’s usually in the context of a larger fluff piece about how the “present day” Imperium relies so heavily on ancient technologies that they no longer properly understand and are of questionable reliability... But we don’t need to roll dice to make sure our Imperial Guard Tank Squadron was loaded with petrol and not diesel, right?

  4. 39 minutes ago, Sgt. Rock said:

    And Ish, that's not a bad idea, if I can find any that I can cut off.

    Citadel Miniatures actually sells a great big box of skulls. 340 of them for a mere $30.00 USD! Mostly human, but there's some orcs, tau, and a big old monster-alien-demon thing too.

    Secret Weapon Miniatures sells a Sack O'Skulls too. They're resin and a bit nicer looking than the Citadel ones, IMHO, but its only 50 of them for $15.00 USD.

    And, of course, you've got a 3D printer. I'm sure you can probably find files for piles of skulls.

    [Insert obligatory Khorne reference here.]

  5. I’ve always wondered why GW uses a three-step process (roll to hit, roll to wound, roll to save) to accomplish what most games do with a two-step process (roll to hit, roll to defend or roll to hit, roll damage). Were it up to me, I’d just scrap the “roll to wound” portion of the whole procedure... 

    But if your goal is a retro-clone of WH40k 5th Edition, you probably should stick with as many of the existing rules as possible.

     

  6. Remember that old Portlandia sketch, “Put a bird on it?” The Citadel Miniatures design team seems to follow a similar philosophy: put a skull on it.

    If you need to replace the random rock or tree stump that GW puts under the feet of a lot of their minis, you can’t go wrong with a skull. A helmet also works. Bonus points if you have a specific army (e.g., orks) that you love to hate and use one of their skulls.

    Ammo crates, random cables, or industrial piping might also work.

  7. 12 minutes ago, Raindog said:

    That video was brilliant.

    All eight episodes of Terry Jones' Medieval Lives can be found on YouTube... and if you enjoy the, you should also track down Terry Jones' Barbarians from 2006 which deals with the Goths, Celts, Huns, Vandals, and Greeks (yes, the Greeks) with an equal mix of history, myth-busted, and comedy. The Story of 1 is also a great one. It's a single hour-long documentary about the history of numbers... Yeah. Sounds incredibly boring and/or really freakin' weird, but Jones' knack for storytelling, natural charisma, and flair for comedy makes it work. 

    I'm less fond of his 1995 series The Crusades, which is still quite entertaining and much more historically accurate than most "edu-tainment" works about the Crusades, but suffers heavily from the presentism. Cambridge historian Sir Steven Runciman, CH FBA, was a consultant for the series, appears on camera as an interview subject, and his work serves as the foundation for most of the show. Runciman is well-known in academic circles for his bias of always portraying the Crusaders negatively and the Muslims favorably. Terry Jones' show suffers (IMHO) for it's reliance on Runciman... Having said that, it's still damn entertaining and a much better overview of the period than you typically see on The History Channel or other such sources. Just, y'know, apply a few pinches of salt.

    • Like 3
  8. 1 hour ago, Munkie said:

    I tried, but the website won't let me complete the order. Keeps telling me my postal code is incomplete.  Even looked up the +4 digits. No good.

    Hopefully they're not missing out on a lot of donations due to a poorly functioning website...

    Did it specifically say “postal code” rather than ZIP code? If so, double check that you didn’t inadvertently put Canada or some other country in the country box... or that clicking or scrolling someplace else on the page didn’t accidentally reset the country box.

    I deal with a boatload of poorly designed web forms all day at work, this probably happens to me twice a week. 

    • Thanks 1
  9. Monty Python was a huge influence on my life, but what truly made me love Jones was his post-Python career as a historian and an advocate for modern society to take medieval history seriously:

    Why do I feel so exercised about what we think of the people of the Middle Ages?...I guess it's because so many of their voices are ringing vibrantly in my ears – Chaucer's, Boccaccio's, Henry Knighton's, Thomas Walsingham's, Froissart's, Jean Creton's... writers and contemporary historians of the period who seem to me just as individual, just as alive as we are today. We need to get to know these folk better in order to know who we are ourselves.

    But, maybe not too seriously...

     

    • Like 4
×
×
  • Create New...